The company is contributing the open source ADAP code to a Kantara Initiative work group, with the aim of expanding the traditional Identity Management (IdM) segment to Identity Relationship Management (IdRM).

Traditionally, directories have been used as a source of important information for two categories of applications: email services, which use directories to store and look up email addresses; and IdM and security applications, such as web access management, federation, provisioning, and GRC. These applications use the directory as a source for identities, groups, and other contextual information, particularly in the enterprise space.

"ADAP for LDAP provides an approach for accessing the information and structure of a directory that represents an alternative to SCIM or Graph API," said Joni Brennan, executive director at the Kantara Initiative. "Accessing objects in the directory is essential. Reaching these objects by 'traversing' a directory and revealing the context surrounding an object is innovative. This context is essential for web services needing access to these rich information stores, while also respecting separation of duties and only disclosing information on a need-to-know basis."

Because directories have a hierarchical structure, context can be discovered and information can be progressively disclosed by navigating the "directory information tree." Until now, complete access to the directory information was accessible only through a direct call using LDAP.

"ADAP means greater flexibility for cloud, web, and app developers and extends business capabilities when it comes to accessing traditional directory sources," said Michel Prompt, CEO at Radiant Logic. "Our API performs on top of any LDAP directory — not just our own VDS — and we are happy to be contributing this open-source technology to the application developer community. When coupled with HDAP (big data technology applied to LDAP) and the RadiantOne integration layer, ADAP provides a simple way to access the information about identities and their relationship to other data that's buried across diverse data silos. This contextual data is the ultimate target that will drive this new identity and relationship management category."

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